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Morning Bell: 'tick-tock, tick-tock,' November is coming

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren poses by her former high school's mascot logo at Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. Warren, Class of '66, was the main speaker at the American Federation of Teachers education rally at the school. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman via AP)

Good Monday morning!

TODAY: I'm in Las Vegas at the Education Writer Association's higher education conference. I'll tweet interesting things and will have a story or two from this two-day conference.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was at her old high school Saturday - Northwest Classen in Oklahoma City. She addressed a few hundred educators and other supporters, urging them to vote in November for pro-public education candidates.

The spirited rally took me back to the April walkout and Warren told teachers their two-week walkout was just the beginning of a big year for public schools. I wrote about Warren's rally, which you can read here. Oklahoman photographer Doug Hoke got some great photos from the rally, which you can view here.

State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister encouraged students at Duncan High School to make a habit out of voting. "It’s a good habit to get into, and, actually, there’s all kind of opportunities, with the web, to get to know the candidates,” reports the Duncan Banner.

Cyber attack hits OKC schools

A cyber attack has limited parental access to Oklahoma City Public Schools' student information system for nearly a week, but no student data has been stolen, a district spokeswoman said Sunday.

In a statement, spokeswoman Beth Harrison said the "denial of service" attack on Infinite Campus, which houses the district's parent portal, has made it difficult if not impossible to access the site.

"To be clear, this is NOT a data breach and Infinite Campus HAS NOT been hacked; attacks like these simply limit their customers' ability to reach their web-hosted applications," Harrison's statement said. "No student data has been stolen/breached. "

Calendar change not supported by all

The Oklahoma City school board recently voted to move away from the continuous learning calendar toward a more traditional one. Garron Park, who teaches world history and street law at Southeast High School, wrote in a column for The Oklahoman that he disagrees with the decision.

(Story continued below...)

"As an educator in this district, I am disheartened at the seeming lack of empirical evidence used to justify this decision — especially since teachers are expected to use data in their instructional decisions," Park wrote. "I am far more concerned, however, that legitimate reasoning behind the change has not been distributed to district stakeholders. This makes it a step in the wrong direction."

OU sees record student retention numbers

The latest student retention data from the University of Oklahoma show record numbers of juniors and seniors returned to OU this fall, Provost Kyle Harper said.

Junior class fall enrollment includes 83.7 percent of OU's 2016 freshman cohort, while just over 80 percent of the 2015 freshman cohort are either enrolled as seniors or have graduated, Harper said. Both are all-time highs.

Childhood trauma high in Oklahoma

Oklahoma children are more likely to experience toxic, adverse conditions at home than children in other states, but there is hope for a better future, Senate lawmakers were told Thursday.

State health officials said recent studies show Oklahoma ranks as the worst in the nation when it comes to the number of adverse childhood experiences. Such experiences include neglect and abuse, drug use in the home, exposure to domestic violence, living with someone who is mentally ill, having an incarcerated family member, living in a broken home and more.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren poses by her former high school's mascot logo at Northwest Classen High School in Oklahoma City on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. Warren, Class of '66, was the main speaker at the American Federation of Teachers education rally at the school. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman via AP)

Ben Felder

Ben Felder is an investigative reporter for The Oklahoman. A native of Kansas City, Ben has lived in Oklahoma City since 2010 and covered politics, education and local government for the Oklahoma Gazette before joining The Oklahoman in 2016....
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